The present invention provides apparatus for restricting the motion of a motorcycle while it is being carried on the bed of a pickup truck or similar vehicle.
The use of motorcycles for off-the-road recreation in areas remote from population centers has become extremely popular. Motorcycles designed for such off-the-road use are not well adapted for riding on commercial roadways, and it is usually not feasible to drive the motorcycles themselves to the area in which they are to be used. Rather, such off-the-road motorcycles are usually hauled on specially designed trailers or on the beds of pickup trucks or similar vehicles and off-loaded at the site where they are to be used. After such use, they are again loaded onto the trucks or trailers and returned to where they are stored.
The common practice when the motorcycles are hauled on the back of pickup trucks to and from the site where they are used is to strap them in position using ropes or stretch cords each time the motorcycles are loaded on the trucks. If permanent mounting brackets were attached to the truck bed, the truck could not be used for many other purposes such as in the hauling of a camper shell and thus such special mounting features are not ordinarily used. Conventional permanent mounting brackets are too large and cumbersome to be installed and replaced each time the truck is used to carry motorcycles. However, when the motorcycles are merely strapped to the bed of the pickup truck, they often come loose and the motorcycles can be damaged in transit.